"Mommy, are we moving?"

Bill and I went to look at a house today.

Not, of course, that this means we are seriously considering moving. We're not. As if either of us needs one more project right now!

But this house caught our eye, and it's been a long time since a house really caught my eye. In short, it's kinda huge, with a huge yard, and a bargain price. What's not to like, right?

Well...the thing is, I did like it. The reasons for its bargain price were, of course, quickly apparent. It's one of those diamond-in-the-rough deals, needing a ton of work, and a pretty quirky floor plan as well. We probably wouldn't even move in without completely repainting and redoing all the floors--but then again, we have never moved into any of our houses without completely repainting and redoing all the floors, now that I think about it. This time it would require ripping out tile, though. It also has a groovy intercom system with speaker boxes in each room--we've been through that one, too, cutting them out, re-drywalling, and painting over them in house #2. And it has a groovy three-way fireplace and a happenin' wet bar that we'd have to figure out what to do with. Sounds good so far, right? Oh and also the previous owners seem to have had a large dog, that put deep scratches in the six-panel oak doors--all of them--and left doggie-marks on the lower half of many of the walls. (Just paint, though, right?) The kitchen is very groovy and would need a complete redo (but it's in much better shape than the one I lived with for 3 years in house #2), the master bath--well, you'd have to see it, and all the landscaping needs to be ripped out and redone (much like our current house).

But I still kinda like it. It has a beautiful big yard with lots of big, mature trees, including a couple of maples, which we've always wanted. It has a great office for Bill. It has a terrible formal living room up in the front, which would actually make a really good homeschool room. It has a perfect room for an exercise room, so the kids could stop climbing all over our recumbent bike when they watch TV. It has the MOST giant master bathtub you could possibly imagine, and a couple of great walls in the wide downstairs hallway for gigantic bookcases, and good storage. It has big, nice windows in the back that look out on all the trees. It has a flat driveway for basketball, and at least one person in this family mourns our current steeply sloped driveway almost every day. And one of the best things is that it's not far from our current home--probably 7 or 8 minutes--which means most things in our life would stay the same. I guess the thing about it is that, even though it's got a sorta-funky floor plan (we're not ones to go for octagonal breakfast rooms, for example, and it's the master tub that is in the upstairs octagon--yikes!), it just has the right feel to me. Do you know what I mean? For me, the right house "feel" has to do with envisioning myself being an old lady in the house, with the kids coming home for Thanksgiving there. It is a "big, Catholic family" feel. This new house has it. The one I live in, to tell you the truth, doesn't.

I can't imagine taking on the project of moving right now, though. I can barely keep ahead of the laundry just lately, and my homeschooling is teetering on the edge of crisis mode, as I continue to work through learning how much to really expect to get done and what methods work best for us. And all of this is with MPD not even crawling yet--in another couple of months, I will REALLY be going insane! Even more than moving, I can't imagine trying to show and sell our current house--I can't even pick up all the toys in the house at the same time, much less get the house up to the level of being ready to show. Not even close!

And I like our house. It's comfortable. Sure, a bit tight for our party of seven, but there are worse things--like house #2, which was huge and gorgeous--or at least potentially so--but a money pit, and hard to take care of. Believe it or not, after 4 years, I have now lived here the second longest of any house I've ever lived in. The kids, of course, are totally happy here. And they each have friends right nearby whom they adore, which is a very big deal.

What to do, what to do? Well, probably nothing. I'll just do what I usually do--let Bill figure it out. I'm pretty sure I would curse myself a lot if I signed up for another fixer-upper house, especially right now. But I do know one thing: Based on the way things have always gone for us in the past, if we were to put a contract on that house, shortly afterwards, I'd discover that I was pregnant. No doubt. For me, moving is like a fertility drug.

Let me be clear: I am NOT now pregnant. I was just kidding there.